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BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA: This photo taken 27 December 2004 shows local residents in Banda Aceh carrying away the body of a dead relative the day after a devastating 9.0 magnitude earthquake flattened the area. The quake centering off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island and resulting tsunamis killed at least 28,000 people in Indonesia and neighboring countries. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images) less

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BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA: This photo taken 27 December 2004 shows local residents in Banda Aceh carrying away the body of a dead relative the day after ... more

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FOR EXCLUSIVE USE BY INSIGHT/RICK NOBLES. ONE TIME USE ONLY.
BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA: This photo taken 27 December 2004 shows local residents in Banda Aceh carrying away the body of a dead relative the day after a devastating 9.0 magnitude earthquake flattened the area. The quake centering off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island and resulting tsunamis killed at least 28,000 people in Indonesia and neighboring countries. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images) less

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BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA: This photo taken 27 December 2004 shows local residents in Banda Aceh carrying away the body of a dead relative the day after ... more

There is an old cliché about famines: They are all man-made. There is enough food to go around; it is just in the wrong places. The same can be said about natural disasters like the earthquake and tsunami that killed tens of thousands in Asia last week. People are in the wrong places.

Human decisions can limit the extent of the damage, something folks in the Bay Area know well from many years of preparing for the Big One.

Just as people in the Bay Area have spent billions of dollars to limit the ill effects of a devastating quake, others around the world have done the same to prepare for their inevitable disasters.

Experts know that such preparations make a difference in the human cost of disasters. They are already citing many things, small and large, that could be done to reduce deaths in the event of future quake-tsunami combos.

Why haven't they already taken the necessary steps? Some Asian countries are too poor perhaps, but what about India?

The world's second most populous nation has the money and know-how to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles to carry them hundreds of miles.

India is also home to an enormous software industry. And yet the nation's hard-hit coast was unprotected even by a relatively inexpensive electronic warning system that could have saved thousands of lives.

Shame on India for failing to realize that its pell-mell rush to the forefront of the world's high-tech industries dangerously exposed it to an old- economy mishap.

Shame on India's government for pushing so hard to advance its nuclear weapons program that it failed to see the wisdom of stringing cheap sensors along its coastline. (Only now, after the disaster, do Indian leaders pledge to install a warning system.)

India is not alone in deserving condemnation even as it "earns" aid and sympathy. Look at Indonesia. One of the areas most devastated by the disaster is Aceh province, home to some of the most productive oil fields in Asia and described last week as "a graveyard."

Billions of dollars have been pumped out of Aceh in recent decades, with most of the money lining the pockets of Indonesia's elite. We know the people of Aceh aren't benefiting from oil much because for 25 years, Indonesia's central government has mounted a war to maintain its control over Aceh's oil.

Without the force of arms, Aceh would have seceded from Indonesia, or at least gained a fair split of its oil revenue.

No matter how the area's oil money had been spent, last week's disaster would have killed many in Aceh. But had more money been spent on Aceh's infrastructure and its people, surely the death toll would have been lower.

In the rush to help survivors, humanitarian agencies aren't blameless either. They are sending the wrong message to the shortsighted leaders who helped to make the disaster such a horror in the first place.

Of course, relief workers and donors are obligated to help the needy. Still, they can come clean with the rest of us and state the obvious: They are rewarding irresponsible governments for doing nothing.

Such a declaration, of course, would harm the fund-raising capabilities of Oxfam, Catholic Relief Services and the Red Cross, to name a few of the prominent relief outfits. But isn't candor warranted?

How about an honest slogan, such as, "India stole your job, but please donate money anyway to help their poor unfortunates!"

Naturally, Americans can see past their narrow self-interest, at least far enough to realize that the best outcome of last Sunday's disaster -- indeed the only way to honor the many dead -- is to support steps to increase the safety of the world's coastal communities.

There are good reasons to begin this task soon because of the likely possibility that global climate change is raising the sea level -- and threatening to make 40-foot waves and flash flooding an all-too-frequent happening.